The great bassist’s first LP as leader, released in 1978, just after the demise of the Revolutionary Ensemble.
Fact magazine reckons it’s one of ‘twenty essential records from the 70s underground’: ‘a beautiful set, with James Newton’s flute giving the quartet performances a breathy lilt, while the interaction between Sirone on bass and Muneer Bernard Fennell (who also appears on Abdullah’s wonderful Life Force from 1979) on cello is lovely, particularly when Sirone is playing arco — parts of Circumstances feel like they’re levitating on lambent strings. Famoudou Don Moye (of The Art Ensemble Of Chicago) is a sympathetic, apposite percussionist too. Yet perhaps the most potent moment on the album comes when Sirone is playing solo, singing out from and stretching the parameters of the instrument, running rivulets of melody down the instrument’s spine on Breath Of Life. The closing Libido ends things on a graceful, melancholic note, the strings and flute harmonising across gentle phrases.’
Painstakingly reissued, in a die-cut craft-card sleeve, with a printed inner, and two postcards.

Perfect condition.

Home Cookin’, Crazy! Baby, Midnight Special, Back At The Chicken Shack, Softly As A Summer Breeze.

‘Classic Vinyl’ series.

With Cannonball Adderley, Duke Jordan and co.
Kicking off with Tribute To Brownie; and extending his tradition of hard bop trumpet-playing.

‘Three adventurous, spacious displays of Smith’s unique and innovative trumpet — besides percussion, tuned percussion and flute — right at the crest of his induction into the pantheon of AACM greats. A candid snapshot of one of the most vital musicians to extend the jazz tradition, testing his craft and artistry with a bright, pure-toned sensibility and deeply soulful melodic imagination.’

At the turn of the sixties, pushing at the soul-jazz envelope (and tripping out on Eleanor Rigby) — with Lee Morgan, Julian Priester, Bennie Maupin, Melvin Sparks, and Leo Morris.

Classic Vinyl Series.

CD from BGP.

From the same year Smith left the Miles Davis group, the title track is such an almighty classic, it has eclipsed this lovely LP.
Desert Nights, Voodoo Woman and the dubby Shadows are variations of the same ecstatically cosmic, limberly funky modal jazz as the beloved opener, centred on the sublimity of Cecil McBee’s bass-playing. Summer Days and My Love go Latin. The tenor voice of Lonnie’s bro Donald leads a version of Horace Silver’s Peace (with new, yearning lyrics by Doug Carn).

‘Ace is celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the original Flying Dutchman release, with an ultra-high quality deluxe vinyl edition of the album. Using the original album master tape we decamped to Frank Merritt’s East London studio, the Carvery, for an all-analogue cut of the album. It has never sounded better!
‘We have housed this in a tip-on a laminated gatefold sleeve, which has allows Jack Martin’s original painting of Lonnie to shine as never before. We have also a fully illustrated sleeve note by Frank Tope, telling the story of how the record took its journey through the universe from its spiritual jazz route to become a clubland anthem. This story is told with help from Gilles Peterson, Norman Jay, and others.’

The best of the Flying Dutchmans.

His final Flying Dutchman: classic jazz-fusion, imbued with Latin rhythms.
His brother Donald is in fine voice throughout, but that’s Lonnie himself singing on the grooving, anthemic opener; a kind of reprise of Expansions.
Next up, Renaissance.